ENTHUSIASTIC REVIVAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 162, 25 June 1935, Page 8

ENTHUSIASTIC REVIVAL

Maoris and Their Arts WORK OF LOCAL NATIVES AU over New Zealand the leaders of the Maori race, particularly Hie younger men and women, have joined enthusiastically in a movement to revitalise the native arts, and to arouse among their own people a prideful interest in them. The Maoris living in the pas about Hastings are by no moans the least active in forwarding the movement, and their earnest activities, especially during the last four years or so, have made a decided change in the attitude of the local natives towards their own unique and beautiful arts. They are practising them with an earnestness and keenness never known before, and their progress towards perfection has kept pace with thoir enthusiasm.

Mr. John Bennett, one of the younger men among those who are sponsoring this revival, gave a “Tribune” reporter a striking account of the manner in which the young Maori men and women are devoting themselves to the practice ol Maori songs, pois, hakas, incantations, stick-games and string-games, and so on. Night after night, he said, these young people, most of whom aro wellknown footballers and hockey players, gather at Kohupatikl or elsewhere to practise. There is not, of course, any compulsion upon them. They have been fired with an enthusiasism that makes them love this work, and it is entirely voluntary. Many of the young performers travel considerable distances to take part in their practices, and provide their own native costumes. This valuable work cannot continue without funds, and for the purpose of assisting those funds a Maori concert is to be given in the Havelock Village Hall on Thursday evening. For the cost of a shilling the public will be enabled to see some of the results of tho work that the Maoris aro so devotedly doing, and at the same time will have the pleasure of contributing in a small way towards its continuance.